Traders report share sales in Sainsbury and Debenhams

The retail sector is a hive of activity at the moment, with talk of a placing in J.Sainsbury coming hard on the heels of a stake sale at Debenhams.

The supermarket group is up 3.25p at 310.5p as traders heard Cazenove was placing 27m shares - around 1.5% - at around 310p each. The suggestion was they were being sold on behalf of Ernst & Young, the administrators to the Icelandic bank Kaupthing. Kaupthing was involved with the sale of the Robert Tchenguiz stake in Sainsbury last year.

The Icelanders are involved in two other market moves. Debenhams has dropped 6p to 48p as HSBC began selling a 13% shareholding previously owned by the country's collapsed investment group Baugur.

Over at JJB Sports its shares have jumped 2.25p to 11.25p on rumours that 65m shares owned by Kaupthing - which formerly belonged to ex-chief executive Chris Ronnie - had been sold at 11p each, with some suggesting Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley as a possible buyer. Ashley reportedly tried to intervene in JJB's attempts to sell its fitness business to founder Dave Whelan.